Two more NFL awards were handed out today by the Associated Press and neither winner should come as much of a surprise. LaDainian Tomlinson's demolition of the record books made him the easy choice for MVP. As the best player on the NFL's best team, 44 of the 50 voters deemed this a no-brainer. His former teammate Drew Brees finished a distant second, while Peyton Manning garnered the remaining two votes. Everyone knows the stats: leading rusher in the NFL, new single season TD record, even threw a couple of touchdowns. However, it may be his ability to take opponents focus off rookie QB Philip Rivers that is most impressive. Going in to the season, many prognosticators felt that the Chargers would struggle with a first year starter at the helm. If teams simply stuffed the box and made Rivers beat them, there was no way the Chargers could win. Tomlinson's domination has not allowed any team to do that. Even without top notch receivers, he managed to open up the offense enough with his running to get a first year starting quarterback to the Pro Bowl. Tomlinson has made the much maligned "Marty-Ball" seem fun. Coach Schottenheimer even dubbed him the best RB ever. A few more seasons like 2006 and it will be very tough to argue against him. However, people need to stop calling him LT. We all know who that's reserved for.
More controversial was the choice of Chad Pennington. The Comeback Player of the Year award is a bit ambiguous. It's difficult to determine the most important criteria in selecting a winner. Did the candidate have to miss a full season? Is it the player who battled adversity to have the best season? The runners-up for the award, Drew Brees and Carson Palmer, only left in their final games of 2005. Yet the severity of their injuries and the overwhelming success they had this season made them legitimate candidates. However, as difficult as it is for me to say this, Chad Pennington truly deserved the award. After suffering rotator cuff injuries two years in a row, no one believed the "pre-injury Chad" would ever come back. The Jets acquired Patrick Ramsey and drafted Kellen Clemons as insurance policies. They were again expected to finish in the cellar of the AFC East and there was no way the lame-armed Pennington could recover from injuries that only made his right arm weaker. Yet inexplicably, this man brought that other team from the Meadowlands to a 10-6 record and the fifth seed in a very competitive AFC. Until the day he hangs them up I will question his ability to throw a football, but Pennington simply knows how to get the job done. His timing with his receivers is impeccable and he doesn't make many mistakes. He continually makes "arm strength" look like an overrated evaluation of a quarterback. It's only fitting that the kid from Marshall gets the Comeback Player of the Year in the weeks following the release of the movie that portrays one of the finest comebacks in sports history.
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